OMS 52
by Cherry“Oh my goodness. Look at that baby. You were that small once.”
Lee Hee-soo’s mother smiled fondly at a child who had come to the hospital with their pregnant mother. Park Dong-sik felt he’d chosen the wrong person to ask for help. He should have come alone. He’d brought him here because he was too afraid to come by himself, but who knew he’d be this excited and welcoming.
The one good thing was that the obstetrics clinic was small and located on the outskirts, far from Seoul. While he was feeling relieved about the fewer eyes around, the desk called out a name he’d never heard before. Lee Hee-soo’s omega half-brother who’d gone abroad, his mother had registered under his name.
Entering with his face wrapped tightly in a scarf, an elderly doctor pushed up his glasses while looking at Lee Hee-soo.
“Mr. Lee Seon-jae?”
“Yes…”
“Congratulations. The blood test confirms pregnancy. It’s too early to see on ultrasound, but come back in 2-3 weeks and we can check then. If you’re lucky, you might hear the heartbeat then. And also—”
Park Dong-sik cut off the doctor.
“Please terminate it.”
The doctor stared at Park Dong-sik. If Lee Hee-soo’s mother had been there, he would have caused a scene. He would have smacked his back, asking how he could give up on such a golden opportunity. But Park Dong-sik had no interest in having a child and felt a strong aversion to even imagining giving birth to it.
“Abortion…Do you have a reason?”
Park Dong-sik answered without changing his expression.
“I’m a drug addict. I just did drugs today.”
The doctor grunted and asked another question.
“If you’re going to, come with the guardian.”
“I don’t know who the father is. I’ve been with too many to guess. If I called them all, this hospital would overflow.”
The doctor looked at him with disbelief, tapping his chart.
“Still, you need the guardian. Omegas have higher surgical risks than Betas. That’s true even in the early stages. And if it’s because of drugs as you mentioned, bring related test results and reports. Understood?”
Park Dong-sik furrowed his brow deeply. He pleaded with the doctor to get it done today, but the elderly doctor ignored him. Just as he was about to pull out a check, the doctor called a nurse with the bell and had her escort Park Dong-sik out. Finally giving up, Park Dong-sik approached the doctor before leaving.
“Forget the abortion, just one favor. If that person outside who calls himself my mother comes asking, please tell her I’m not pregnant. You can do that, right?”
“We don’t disclose patient information carelessly.”
Finally, some good news. He clearly looked too principled to be swayed by bribes. Park Dong-sik nodded his head.
“Doctor. Thank you so fucking much.”
Finally kicked out of the exam room, Park Dong-sik went to Lee Hee-soo’s mother waiting in the chair.
“What did they say? Are you?”
Park Dong-sik ignored her and walked straight out of the hospital. As he lit a cigarette, his mother came and asked again.
“What did the doctor say?”
“Said I’m not.”
The disappointment was clear on Lee Hee-soo’s mother’s face. Still suspicious, she went inside and came back out. Whatever she heard made her face turn red with anger.
“They clearly saw us together. Why won’t they say anything to me?! How can people be so inflexible? No wonder this hospital is empty!”
“They said I’m not. Let’s go.”
“Really not? Want to try another hospital?”
Instead of getting in her car, Park Dong-sik waved down a taxi. Lee Hee-soo’s mother rushed over and grabbed his arm. “Why won’t you take Mom’s car? Let’s try another hospital. Who knows? You might really be pregnant. Pregnancy would change your fate. You’d really become the true mistress of Daesan.”
Park Dong-sik shook off his arm and slipped into the taxi.
“That’s enough. I’m going.”
“Don’t be like that, come with Mom!”
“No thanks. If I stay any longer, I’ll die from stress.”
“What? Why are you talking like that? You know you’ve been really strange since the accident? Speaking rudely, acting rudely, you keep making Mom sad! Do you want to see me die?”
Getting into the taxi, Park Dong-sik smiled at Lee Hee-soo’s mother.
“Do whatever you want about dying.”
“You, what did you just say? Are you crazy? Have you completely lost it?”
Wanting to get away from the sound of his yelling, he slammed the taxi door shut. Looking back, Lee Hee-soo’s mother was jumping up and down, pointing fingers at him. His phone rang immediately, but he turned it off and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window.
Only then did realistic worries crash over him like a tsunami.
I really am pregnant…What do I do now…? What should I do…?
No matter how much he worried, no solution appeared, and his mind grew increasingly blank.
***
The staff had brought over some porridge, but Park Dong-sik lay sprawled like a corpse in the second-floor bedroom, with no energy to even take a bite. Maybe he should starve himself to near death. Without nutrients going to the belly, wouldn’t the baby disappear on its own?
Park Dong-sik looked down at his lower abdomen. He felt no conscience or guilt. Rather, his only thought was how to quickly find a solution to escape this crisis. As he drifted in and out of sleep, he sensed a presence.
Kim Jun-han was supposed to return tomorrow…
The silhouette he glimpsed was smaller and more slight than Kim Jun-han.
Coming to his senses, Park Dong-sik looked at the other person with disbelief.
“Ms. Yoon-ah?”
Kim Yoon-ah, in Chairman Kim’s form, approached with a tray of porridge. She pulled a chair to the bedside and looked at Lee Hee-soo with concern written all over her face.
“How’s your stomach? I heard you’ve been starving yourself.”
“Why did you come here? What about Madam Song?”
“She went to meet her friends.”
“How’s your leg? Is walking uncomfortable?”
“No, the treatment worked well. I’m fine, though I can’t run like before.”
Chairman Kim smiled faintly, then hesitantly spoke after checking his expression.
“Today…did you meet up with your mother?”
“Yes. Who told you?”
“I asked Driver Oh.”
“Ah…”
“He never used to tell me anything when I asked before, but now it’s different. He tells me right away. It feels strange. I’m Kim Yoon-ah…only the shell has changed, but people are intimidated by me.”
Park Dong-sik remained silent.
Though it was the same for him, he couldn’t reveal the truth to comfort Kim Yoon-ah.
“Did you go to the hospital…?”
He struggled internally. Maybe he could tell Kim Yoon-ah. Actually, shouldn’t he have told Kim Yoon-ah before Lee Hee-soo’s mother? But Kim Yoon-ah was Chairman Kim now. What help could she offer him in this form?
“I’m sorry…I should have been more careful in telling you..I was too careless…”
Kim Yoon-ah seemed to have guessed about the pregnancy. Park Dong-sik decided there was no need to hide it further and confessed the truth. That he’d been with both of them and didn’t know whose it was, that he had absolutely no intention of having the baby, but the doctor wouldn’t perform abortion without the guardian.
Chairman Kim, who had been listening quietly, bit her wrinkled lips.
“Do you really want to terminate it?”
“Yes.”
“Before…you wanted to have one.”
“I did?”
“Yes….You loved children so much, said you wanted to be a kindergarten teacher in your next life.”
That was Lee Hee-soo’s story. Not Park Park Dong-sik’s. He was sick of children. Growing up among swarms of kids in the orphanage, every day was war and hell. He only remembered struggling not to fall out of favor while competing with his peers.
“I’ve changed my mind. I hate it now.”
“If it takes after you, Mr. Hee-soo, it would be such a beautiful baby.”
“Even if an angel comes out, I absolutely don’t want it.”
“What if you could receive assets?”
Park Dong-sik’s eyebrows raised. What?
“Remember what you said before? To me…asking for half the assets. If you have the baby, and I’m in the Chairman’s body…wouldn’t it be possible? From what I know, maybe not half, but you could receive quite a substantial amount. It’s not unusual to pass assets to grandchildren.”
Park Dong-sik frowned.
“But that wouldn’t be given to me.”
“From what I know, there’s a specific clause about pregnancy in the prenuptial agreement. If you have a child, some of CEO Kim’s shares would be transferred to Lee Hee-soo.”
Park Dong-sik’s expression changed curiously.
“There…there was something like that included in the contract?”
“You don’t remember?”
Park Dong-sik jumped up and went to the safe in the dressing room to get out the contract he’d exchanged with Kim Jun-han. He’d grumbled about how thick the prenup was but hadn’t checked it carefully. Bringing it to the bedroom, he started reading from the beginning, but the language was so difficult he understood only half. Chairman Kim, watching from the side, carefully extended her hand.
“May I take a look?”
After receiving it, Chairman Kim put on reading glasses and flipped through until stopping in the middle.
“Here it is.”
Park Dong-sik’s gaze followed her finger.
[If Lee Hee-soo becomes pregnant and bears a child, Kim Jun-han will transfer 1% of his owned shares.]
What is this…?
“Huh, just 1%?”
Looking at Chairman Kim with disbelief, she started explaining in detail. Kim Jun-han’s current shares totaled over 6 trillion won, and 1% of that was by no means a small amount. As someone who’d worked in private loans, Park Dong-sik was quick with calculations. His mouth gaped as he ran the numbers in his head.
“Six…sixty billion won?”
Chairman Kim nodded her head, and Park Dong-sik stared blankly at the contract in amazement. This is why they say to read contracts carefully. Come to think of it, wasn’t this what Park Dong-sik said most often when collecting debts? But this was supposed to be a secret contract, how did Kim Yoon-ah know its contents?
“When did you find out about this?”
“You told me, Mr. Hee-soo. Said I must keep it absolutely secret. Actually, you didn’t seem to think deeply about the possibility of pregnancy. If you remember, because of a serious accident when you were young…you were told pregnancy would be difficult. That’s probably why CEO Kim agreed when making the contract.”
Park Dong-sik looked down at his lower abdomen. If he could take the assets according to this contract…it wasn’t a bad condition at all. No, more than not bad, it could be called a windfall. When else in life could he get his hands on such a large sum?
No need to think too hard. Have the baby, then leave this place, that’s all. But what if it wasn’t Kim Jun-han’s child? What if it was Kim Tae-han’s? Who did he do it with more? No, should he calculate by dates for accuracy? While lost in thought, Park Dong-sik shook his head.
Whatever. The contract just says pregnancy, not whose child it has to be.
Park Dong-sik grabbed Chairman Kim’s wrinkled hands. “Thank you. If not for you, I might have kicked away this fortune.”
At those words, Chairman Kim smiled sadly. She seemed depressed at how Lee Hee-soo, who had once loved and wanted children so much, had changed, but Park Dong-sik deliberately ignored this.
Because, after all, I’m not really Hee-soo….